Well isn’t this interesting? The FBI was given it’s own private tour of the Best Buy “Geek Squad” computer repair facilities during the Obama and Comey days. This was done back in September of 2016, at the height of the election season. We’ll wait (and wait and wait) to see if Mr. Magoo Jeff Sessions or his boss Rod Rosenstein do anything about this.
| Best Buy gave Obama FBI tour of Geek Squad facility – FBI paid employees as informants |
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We've received documents that confirm:
– Best Buy gave the FBI a tour of their repair facility
– The FBI paid Geek Squad employees as informants
– FBI agents have a process for investigating & prosecuting people who sent their devices to the Geek Squadhttps://t.co/FI9aTlmvs6
— EFF (@EFF) March 6, 2018
After the prosecution of a California doctor revealed the FBI’s ties to a Best Buy Geek Squad computer repair facility in Kentucky, new documents released to EFF show that the relationship goes back years. The records also confirm that the FBI has paid Geek Squad employees as informants.
EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year to learn more about how the FBI uses Geek Squad employees to flag illegal material when people pay Best Buy to repair their computers. The relationship potentially circumvents computer owners’ Fourth Amendment rights.
The documents released to EFF show that Best Buy officials have enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the agency for at least 10 years. For example, an FBI memo from September 2008 details how Best Buy hosted a meeting of the agency’s “Cyber Working Group” at the company’s Kentucky repair facility.
The memo and a related email show that Geek Squad employees also gave FBI officials a tour of the facility before their meeting and makes clear that the law enforcement agency’s Louisville Division “has maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad’s management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division’s Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.”
Another document records a $500 payment from the FBI to a confidential Geek Squad informant. This appears to be one of the same payments at issue in the prosecution of Mark Rettenmaier, the California doctor who was charged with possession of child pornography after Best Buy sent his computer to the Kentucky Geek Squad repair facility.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation